If John Urschel ever becomes a household name, it most likely won't be for his exploits on the football field. The 26 year old offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens has just retired so he can focus on an entirely different career, he's pursuing his Ph.D.

​Urschel announced his retirement Thursday (July 27) and explain that he will be spending his extra time finishing his doctorate in mathematics at the Michigan Institute of Technology.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, but I believe it was the right one for me,” Urschel said in a statement. “I’m excited to start working on my doctorate in mathematics full time at MIT.”

​The Canadian born math genius, who was drafted to the NFL in 2014, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mathematics from Pennsylvania State University.

The MiIT doctoral candidate has done research in spectral graph theory, computational finance, matrix algebra, mathematical physics, and more. Urschel also worked on nearly a dozen mathematical research papers, many of which have been published.